Solving the Marketing Data Disconnect with Big Village CEO Andy Davidson

In this CEO Series interview, Andy Davidson (Chief Data Officer of Bright Mountain Media and Managing Director of Big Village) discusses the critical disconnect between market research insights and their implementation in marketing campaigns.

With experience from Harris Interactive, Bank of America, and GFK, Davidson addresses how audience data often loses fidelity when translated to media planning and digital activation. He explores how Bright Mountain Media is bridging these gaps by integrating research, creative services, and ad tech into a cohesive ecosystem, while sharing his perspectives on AI applications in research and offering valuable leadership advice for industry professionals. 

Thanks again to Andy Davidson for being our guest. You can connect with him on LinkedIn

Transcript

Leonard Murphy: Hello everybody. It's Lenny Murphy with another edition of the CEO series of interviews. Thank you for taking time out of your day to spend with myself and my guest. Today I am joined by Andy Davidson, CEO of Big Village. Andy, welcome.

Andy Davidson: Hello lady. How are you? Great to be here.

Leonard Murphy: I'm doing it's good to have you here. So we obviously know each other, listeners, Andy and you may catch some interplay that we've had a chance to get to know each other over the past year or but for those who don't tell us your origin story like your comic book origin story make it good.

Andy Davidson: I'm not a great storyteller, Lenny, but I will give it my best shot. So, I'm Andy Davidson. I've spent my career in research and analytics. spent quite a bit of my career working for agencies and suppliers, but also spent some time in-house at Bank of America. started in the research industry in graduate school. I grew up in Rochester, New York. was fortunate enough to earn a PhD at University of Rochester and learned to do research there in graduate school and then while I was still in graduate school, got my first gig at Harris Interactive back in the days when the world was moving from phone to online research. A really exciting time in our industry and gave me an opportunity to cut my teeth there. then moved to Charlotte, worked at Bank of America for about five years. was a great experience. really learned about how research gets used by large enterprises to make really important decisions. from there moved up to Philadelphia and have been there ever since.  I spent about 11 years at GFK. and I'm now with Bright Mountain Media. I am the chief data officer for Bright Mountain Media. I'm also managing director of Bright Mountain's research and analytic analytics arm, Big Village. at one point in its history for a long time was known as Opinion Research Corporation. Then for a while we were under the engine brand name and now have landed on big village and Bright Mountain the parent company is a publicly traded end marketing services platform. in addition to research we provide creative and media services. we also have an ad tech stack, a DSP and an SSP as well as some own operated media. So, it's a really exciting time to be part of that sort of an enterprise and gives me as a traditional researcher a lot of opportunity to look for ways to plug into the rest of the marketing ecosystem.

Leonard Murphy: Yeah, it's a fascinating company. I have to ask Harris. I didn't know that. Did you work with Alan Grasani?

Andy Davidson: I did. Yeah, he was there for a bit of time when I was there. not much. And I don't know that I ever had a chance to interact with him one-on-one, but he was part of the organization for a bit of time.

Leonard Murphy: I actually had the honor to have lunch with probably 12 years ago. it was quite the experience. He comes in and he hands me his book. which was just okay. Thank you. I mean it wasn't the gist of the conversation, but I appreciated the gift.

Andy Davidson: I unfortunately did not bring a book with me to share with you, but my bucket list

Leonard Murphy: All let's talk about Big Village because yeah, I'm glad you point out to many people this OC macro, still exists has gone through multiple transformations over the years and the home there. But I think that what the thesis that you have put together of a data driven marketing services and activation company, it's kind of how I think about the Bright Mountain brand is…

Andy Davidson: Yeah, that's fair.

Leonard Murphy: Where many have tried. no one has pulled it off. It seems to me from an outsers's view that you're closer than others in interlinking the value chain of data fundamentally to drive greater marketing effectiveness. So what has that been like from because you're really a data guy in helping to kind of think through all right now we have all this technology to do these things you data is not scarce data is ubiquitous how do we make it work what's that been like for you

Andy Davidson: It's been a great experience, I spent I guess probably about half of my career the learning how to do good market research to use it to develop strategy whether it was for innovation for product service marketing strategy. and then probably the second half of my career I've really devoted my time and attention to making the market research that I oversee and that I'm involved with better. helping it overcome some of the limitations and challenges that I observed that we have as an industry earlier in my career. So, I think that just to unpack that a little bit more, as your listeners probably understand, market research obviously plays a really really important role in the marketing workflow. it's usually the first place that brands and agencies go to understand their audiences, how those audiences make decisions, and ultimately how to effectively position their products or services with those audiences, whether they're a consumer audience or a business audience both, right? I mean, some of the brands I've worked with u cater to both those types of audiences, and for all intents and purposes, from my perspective, the industry has done a really good job at that essentially helping brands parse out markets and figure out how to approach them with personalized solutions by understanding how those needs are unique, and how to position products.  I think, where we run into a problem is what happens afterwards. And I have to confess it's something that I didn't really fully appreciate until I came to Bright Mountain and specifically to Big Village and probably began to get a lot more exposure to other stages of the workflow that are exposed to research but that I didn't necessarily interact with in the past.

Leonard Murphy: Okay.

Andy Davidson: So I'm speaking specifically of agency partners both media and creative who have to take the research and turn it into communications plans turn it into creative strategy and then ultimately deploy campaigns. I'm talking about partners in the ad tech space like DSPs and SSPs that are charged with actually deploying those campaigns and in today's markets in real time instantaneously and I'm talking about the measurement side of things either specifically with publishers who have to demonstrate that the demand side is asking them to reach are actually being reached or me measurement partners who are accountable for actually measuring those impacts. And so the reality is that once research has defined audience requirements and provided guidance on how to position products the agencies and marketers need to find a way to find them in the wild. So that means they have to figure out what the media habits and preferences are of those audiences.  they've got to, place bets on the most efficient ways to reach those audiences, whether it's, through a mixture of, omni channel strategy really invest figure out how to effectively qualify those audiences in real time across digital environments literally instantaneously.

Leonard Murphy: Almost.

Andy Davidson: And so those are the things that sort of happen after research is done. The reality is that the audience requirements that typically are defined by the research they often can't be on boarded effectively into the systems that these agency partners and these digital media partners are using to help accomplish their goals. and really what it comes down to is they're all working with different data systems.  So they're forced to guess I'll give you a couple examples. So we have a pretty well-known travel client country of Aruba which for obvious reasons is a really neat client. they tend to focus on lots of different types of se travel segments but let's take an example of a travel segment that prioritizes luxury. How do I build a communications plan around that travel segment? typically what will happen is an agency will look for places where that segment skews demographically and then they'll build the plan to that demographic skew. So as a rooted monetary example is let's suppose that travel segment tends to skew a little female.

Leonard Murphy: Oops.

Andy Davidson: They're not entirely female but they tend to be more female than the general market.  So then they'll look to media preferences of a female audience right and so in the translation of the travel segment that has a luxury requirement to the travel segment that actually gets planned around you've lost the essence of the strategy. and there are lots of examples of that happening across industries. another example is a banking segment that prioritizes service. maybe they skew older and so the plan gets built around an older population as opposed to one that truly cares about service. and that sort of loss of fidelity happens in every transition through the workflow. the same loss of fidelity happens as you move into digital activation platforms, DSPs or SSPs. And so, that's a real problem and, it's one that, I think that the research industry has an obligation to address in the way that we do our work and the way we set up, our partners downstream to be able to do their work and ultimately on behalf of the brand, deliver high ROI and limit waste. so that's kind of where I'm focused these days. and that's where we as a company are focused.  Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Leonard Murphy: But that gives you so I agree and for our listeners there's a hell of a crash course in the marketing ecosystem end to because so many research companies are not exposed to that, from a supplier standpoint, you perform a task and that fulfills a specific need around a gap in data or a gap in an answer. but not always exposed to the entire endtoend component which is why I think what you guys are building at Bright Mountain is important. It's what I never got why WPP didn't connect everything, across all of their when they own Canar, right? it's like you got all the pieces to put together.

Andy Davidson: Right. Right.

Leonard Murphy: Why are you not doing that? 

Andy Davidson: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean I don't know specifically in their case…

Leonard Murphy: But. Right.

Andy Davidson: But I can tell you from my own experience growing up and having success in the research industry it's just what you're exposed to it wasn't until I came to Bright Mountain and I was spending every day with a set of agency partners spending every day with folks who work in adte it took a long time to be able to speak their language.

Leonard Murphy: Mhm. Yeah.

Andy Davidson: But at some point it clicked, and we realized that there's a huge problem here we could solve on behalf of our clients.

Leonard Murphy: And then along came which I think has profound impact on that entire life cycle from a process standpoint with the unifying factor being data. so I would imagine that for a company Bright Mountain and within Big Village that's becoming a bit of a unifying principle to at least start to see I think it's still early. We're trying we're still kind of building the plane in midair but seeing how technologies can help address some of the concerns that you brought up. Because fundamentally we're dealing with a databased technology that then has impact on various process components and creates efficiencies. Is that kind of the way you're looking at that piece of things? Mhm.

Andy Davidson: Yeah. I mean, as you know from some of our conversations on an unrecorded line, my thinking on this topic is evolving every day and is absolutely dynamic.  So I would say that at this point in our journey, we have lots of different irons in the fire. some of them, solving more basic problems than others. But when I look at AI and to be clear, I'm talking about, generative AI and what can be accomplished with large language models. I see several opportunities for us as an industry. One of them is just process. as anyone who's worked in market research knows, it's a pretty complicated workflow. lots of partners. and therefore lots of opportunity to, automate and increase the agility of the process.  So we are investing and actively pursuing opportunities to make that process more efficient and therefore reduce its cost and then hand that cost savings off to our clients either in terms of time dollars or both. The other area that I'm very intrigued about is synthetic data and using synthetic data procedures to increase the scale of survey data and to be more specific we do obviously a lot of tracking work and specifically Typically we have an audience platform that is essentially a database of surveys we conduct on a regular basis that provide comprehensive insight on media behaviors and purchase behaviors and attitudes etc. any other platform of that sort it has scale limitations and…

Leonard Murphy: Yep.

Andy Davidson: So the notion of synthetic data is very intriguing to me. I do think that it's going to take a little bit of time for the marketplace to come around to being comfortable with it, but having lived through, the transition from phone to internet and other transitions at different points in my career, I'm fully confident that the market will move in that direction. I think the last area on AI that I'm really intrigued about is conversational AI. And I'm sure that different people refer to what I'm talking about in different ways but in effect the ability to have engagement with a representation of a segment in real time using conversational AI technology is very intriguing to me. we're among many things we're in the audience business. We're trying to help agencies and brands figure out how to position their products and services and… how to communicate with their audiences.  And so, inevitably any data that I provide them has limitations and questions arise in real time that they want answered. there's lots of different ways to answer a questions quickly, but a conversational AI app that's a representation of a particular segment with its needs is very intriguing to me.

Leonard Murphy: Yeah. Yeah…

Andy Davidson: So, beyond that, we're also experimenting with AI in the media space and, trying to, figure out ways to use it to curate, personas and understand the needs and expectations of people we come across in the internet based on what they're reading so those are just some areas that we're actively involved in. Tips for emerging leaders.

Leonard Murphy: It's fun times in terms of the opportunity. I want to be constantly your time as well as our listeners. kind of tips for emerging leaders. bestow your wisdom upon us, Andy, please.

Andy Davidson: Yeah, I mean I think I probably a couple. So the first thing is just building on some of the things that I expressed that I learned that make yourself well-rounded step outside of your comfort zone and…

Leonard Murphy: Yep.

Andy Davidson: And put yourself in situations where you learn more than just your trade. you learn how it fits into the larger puzzle. I explained I grew up in research and analytics. There was a lot happening around me that I didn't learn until later in my career. I think learn those trades and their importance as early as you can. And I'd say the other thing is don't be afraid to speak up and offer solutions. if I've learned anything in working with lots of different folks in my career, even people who are earlier in their career have tons to offer. and sometimes their ideas are better than mine who's been around for a long long time. So, don't be afraid to speak up.

Leonard Murphy: That is great wisdom.  I don't know about you, but the older I get, the more I realize I don't know and…

Andy Davidson: Yep. Yeah.

Leonard Murphy: Welcome the inputs of other or I think I knew it and then realize I was wrong. so yeah.

Andy Davidson: Yeah. Yeah.

Leonard Murphy: Yeah. Yeah.

Andy Davidson: Totally. I agree. I agree.

Leonard Murphy: Andy, final thoughts? something you want to bring up that we didn't touch on?

Andy Davidson: No, this was awesome. I appreciate the audience. I look forward to our conversations in the future and, hopefully your listeners will get something out of this.

Leonard Murphy: I think they will. I appreciate it. Where can people find you? How can they connect with you?

Andy Davidson: I am on LinkedIn. that's probably the easiest way to find me.

Leonard Murphy: That's it. really appreciate Thank you to our listeners, to our sponsors. we'll be back with another edition of the CEO series real soon.

Andy Davidson: Thank you, L.

Leonard Murphy: Take care. Thank you. Bye-bye.